It’s a Beautiful Day for a Baptism

Today my beautiful baby girl was baptized. I’m so proud of her decision, but heartbroken to realize that my baby is old enough to reach such a milestone. I seems like just yesterday that she was a rolling ball of skin sitting on my lap and her only want was to eat or poop. Now she’s in 2nd grade and learning faster than the teachers can keep up with her. She’s so intelligent that it scares me, but the information we receive from her teacher and the grades that she receives remind me of myself at that age. Although she’s just finishing 2nd grade she’s already reading at a 5.4 grade level which is amazing. Her math skills are off the charts and every other subject they present to her she flows right into and excels at.

She seems to be able to make friends easily, which is a great thing considering that all 3 of her older siblings seem to have troubles with that. I sometimes wonder if it’s because we moved up here when she was so young that she may be considered a local. I know the boys have problems making friends, but much of that is attributed to their Asperger’s Syndrome and all we can do is intervene as much as possible to teach them the skills to socially make those friends and develop the needed skills. Unfortunately with ALynn, we moved here when she started 3rd grade and it seems that by that point most of the kids had made their friendships and see her as an outsider so she doesn”t fit in well. I have recently found out that one of the big reasons that no one wants to be friends with her is because of a stupid occurence that happened at the local park. There were several boys that showed up with a mini motor bike that decided it was a good idea to ride the bike on the playground and even went so far as to put the bike on one of the pieces of playground equipment. ALynn got upset and ran to tell me. When I saw the bike on the equipment I decided to call the police so of course they showed up. The boys made the decision that ALynn is the one that snitched on them and spread the rumor that she’s a snitch. Since this valley seems to thrive on gossip that rumor spread by wildfire and now most of the people her age have labeled her a snitch and therefore don’t want to be her friend. I don’t want to tell her about it because I don’t want her to get mad at me or build up more animosity towards the kids she goes to school with. She’s made the cheerleading squad and I’m praying that will turn around this entire stupid rumor mill and people will finally realize what a wonderful person she is and how lucky they would be to be her friends.

Paige’s baptism was today at 1pm. I played the piano and my mom directed the music. ALynn even gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost using a story that included Pinocchio, Gepetto and Jiminy Cricket. She did a great job. Grandpa Dave baptized and confirmed her. Steve Jensen and Grandpa Johnie were the witnesses to the baptizm. Her foot come up a little but fortunately it didn’t surface so she only had to get dunked once. When I helped her out of the font she gave me a weird look like she really had no idea what to think. My dad gave a good confirmation blessing, that my mom wrote down and I will hopefully get a copy of it to put in here. Bishop Dean Anderson, Jake Reynolds, Steve, Steve Jensen, Elder Hedgecock and Elder Lo-yat also stood in the cirlce. In order to prepare for this baptism, Paige asked to have the Elders teach her the baptism missionary lessons and we’ve created a good relationship with them. Afterwards, we had a nice lunch/dinner of pulled brisket sandwiches, baked beans, chips, potato salad, soda pop and cupcakes. Grandma and Grandpa Bird, Grandma and Grandpa Kingery, both the elders, and Steve and Jenna Jensen’s family all came to help celebrate. I also sent around a piece of paper and asked everyone that was in attendance to write down their thoughts and knowledge for Paige on being baptized. It filled a full sheet of type paper, both sides. We also asked the Bishop, Jake Reynolds and her Primary teacher Sister Aikele to write down something for her as well. They said they would write it down on the meeting agenda and bring it by later. I think it will make a nice memento for her. We took family pictures, picture of her and Grandpa Dave, and her and the Elders for her to remember with as well. Hopefully I’ll get some pictures added to this as well. I hope this experience stays strong in her mind and that she remembers how important it is to live her life to the standards necessary to return to heaven and to be happy here in this existence. She already tries to live by a good example even though she does occasionally give in to the temptations of her friends. She has a strong spirit and is strong-willed and if she uses that to her advantage I think she’s got a wonderful, healthy and religiously solid future ahead of her.